Nucleic Acids

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Nucleic Acids
Nucleic acids are compounds that contain
C, H, O, N, P
Organic, or inorganic?
Organic!!!
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2 Types
1. DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid
2. RNA
Ribonucleic acid
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Deoxy what?
The building block of DNA is called a nucleotide.
Each nucleotide is composed of 3 things
1) A 5-Carbon sugar
2) A phosphate group
3) A nitrogenous base
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Sugar babies
In DNA, the 5 carbon sugar is called deoxyribose.
HOCH2
O
H
H
H
OH
H
H
OH
5
Phosphate?
The phosphate group (PO4) looks like this
O
P
O-
O-
O-
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Nitrogenous bases
Nitrogenous bases are organic compounds that
contain
nitrogen!!!
There are 4 nitrogenous bases
Adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine
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Nitrogenous bases continued
Adenine always bonds with thymine.
Guanine always bonds with cytosine.
Or
A T
G C
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Putting it together
If you put it all together, you make DNA
DNA looks like a ladder!!!
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Nucleotide structure
nucleotide
Sugar
Nitrogenous base
Phosphate
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DNA structure
A
T
G
C
T
A
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DNA again
DNA is actually coiled into a double helix, or
twisted ladder
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DNAs job in a cell
DNA is what makes up our genetic information.
Each cell in our body contains a copy of our
entire DNA code (over 3 billion pairs of
nucleotides!!!)
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DNA once more
If we were to stretch our DNA out, it would be
about 4 cm long, but because it twists up into a
double helix, it can fit into our cells with no
problem.
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RNA!!!
RNA is involved in protein synthesis.
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Ribose vs Deoxyribose
HOCH2
O
H
HOCH2
O
H
H
H
H
H
OH
OH
H
H
OH
OH
H
OH
Deoxyribose
Ribose
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Other differences?
RNA is only a single strandwhat is DNA?
Double Helix
In RNA, thymine (T) is replaced by uracil(U).